I haven't been homebrewing for very long. I started about a year ago, and have failed every time. At my level, it's pretty stressful. After all the cleaning, boiling, pouring, and cleaning again, you wait for 2 or 3 weeks only to try a beer that tastes like watered down whiskey.
Today I tried again for the first time in over half a year. After being laid off and then moving back to this area (Washington, PA), I was drinking a good amount of beer, reading a lot of books, and looking for a job, leaving no time for brewing. Today represented my third or fourth shot at brewing, one that definitely turned out to be an experience that will sustain itself as a negative reminder of what not to do again.
I brew 3 gallons of bad beer. I use a 3-gallon carboy (glass fermenter), and today used one Cooper's Bitter Beer Kit (a hopped malt extract) at 3.75 Lb's a can. Here's where my mistakes come in: I boiled the malt extract with too much water, and not just because I was mistaken about how much I poured in. I intended on pouring in 1.5 gallons of water, but it turns out it was more like 1.8-1.9 when I checked again. But I shouldn't even have had 1.5 gallons of water. I would wager to say it would have been a better idea to boil the malt extract with 1 gallon of water.
My second mistake was described by the amount of cold water I poured in the carboy: 1.5 gallons. I originally considered that it may be too much, but wasn't prudent enough to take the measure of dumping about a half gallon out. This resulted in just under a half gallon of wort (boiled ingredients) which had no space in the fermenter to hang out and do it's thing. I regretfully dumped the half gallon of wort down the drain. If I'm lucky, in a few weeks I won't be too disappointed.
Take it from me: it's better to be safe than sorry. The latter mistake will most likely be more detrimental to the condition/outcome of the fermented beer than the former because its occurrence, or better yet, my lack of precaution, my carelessness, forced me to throw away wort when I should have been tossing water.
At least the one positive result of today's experience was the amount of stress that mounted up afterward. I drove to GunTown Beer & bought a six-pack of Yuengling's Lord Chesterfield Ale. Cheers!
Today I tried again for the first time in over half a year. After being laid off and then moving back to this area (Washington, PA), I was drinking a good amount of beer, reading a lot of books, and looking for a job, leaving no time for brewing. Today represented my third or fourth shot at brewing, one that definitely turned out to be an experience that will sustain itself as a negative reminder of what not to do again.
I brew 3 gallons of bad beer. I use a 3-gallon carboy (glass fermenter), and today used one Cooper's Bitter Beer Kit (a hopped malt extract) at 3.75 Lb's a can. Here's where my mistakes come in: I boiled the malt extract with too much water, and not just because I was mistaken about how much I poured in. I intended on pouring in 1.5 gallons of water, but it turns out it was more like 1.8-1.9 when I checked again. But I shouldn't even have had 1.5 gallons of water. I would wager to say it would have been a better idea to boil the malt extract with 1 gallon of water.
My second mistake was described by the amount of cold water I poured in the carboy: 1.5 gallons. I originally considered that it may be too much, but wasn't prudent enough to take the measure of dumping about a half gallon out. This resulted in just under a half gallon of wort (boiled ingredients) which had no space in the fermenter to hang out and do it's thing. I regretfully dumped the half gallon of wort down the drain. If I'm lucky, in a few weeks I won't be too disappointed.
Take it from me: it's better to be safe than sorry. The latter mistake will most likely be more detrimental to the condition/outcome of the fermented beer than the former because its occurrence, or better yet, my lack of precaution, my carelessness, forced me to throw away wort when I should have been tossing water.
At least the one positive result of today's experience was the amount of stress that mounted up afterward. I drove to GunTown Beer & bought a six-pack of Yuengling's Lord Chesterfield Ale. Cheers!
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